During the ongoing limited voter registration exercise conducted by the Electoral Commission (EC) in Wa, two individuals were caught in the act of attempting to register twice. The registration machinery was able to detect the duplicate registration attempt in the middle of the process.
This information was revealed to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) by Mr. Ben Alaglo, the Electoral Officer for the Wa Municipality, during the GNA’s visit to the registration center. The initial plan was to hand the offenders over to the police, but they were instead given a warning and let go. The individuals claimed they believed they had registered in 2016, which was why they tried to register again.
Mr. Alaglo has instructed his team to inform those coming to register that anyone who has already registered should not attempt to do so again as the machines will detect them and they may face legal repercussions.
By the time the GNA visited the registration center in Wa at 1340 HRS, over 40 people had successfully registered and received their ID cards. The turnout was not high, hence there was no long queue.
The Municipal EC director mentioned that when he arrived at the office around 0630 HRS, there were only twelve people waiting to be registered. He had expected a larger turnout.
The registration exercise began around 0800 HRS, and according to Mr. Alaglo, they were the first to connect to the database in the region, making them the first center to start registration in the region.
Mr. Louis Arthur, the EC Technician at the registration center, told the GNA the exercise was progressing smoothly with no issues with the registration machines.
The EC is conducting the limited voter registration exercise to give all eligible voters in the country who have not yet obtained their voter’s ID card to do so before the District Level Election (DLE) later this year.
The registration exercise, which is scheduled to conclude on October 2, will run every day of the week from 0800 HRS to 1700 HRS.
The EC aims to register at least 1,350,000 individuals in the 2023 Voters Registration exercise, based on its estimate of the number of people who may have turned 18 since the last registration exercise in 2020.
SOURCE: Senali News Ghana
